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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26248306">Bandages</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnbyStiles/pseuds/EnbyStiles'>EnbyStiles</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hannibal (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blood, Dark Will Graham, Getting Together, Hannibal Bingo, Introspection, Kissing, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, They don't fall, they walk away together after the dragon is dead</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 02:40:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>863</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26248306</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnbyStiles/pseuds/EnbyStiles</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Will and Hannibal don't fall after they kill the Dragon.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>68</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Hannibal Bingo</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Bandages</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is for the Bandages square of my Hannibal Bingo card.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Will doesn’t flinch as Hannibal begins to clean and bandages his wounds. Even the one on his face, which by all rights should have the man on the verge of passing out. Instead, he stares blankly at the wall, just over Hannibal’s shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The older man is sitting on a stool in front of him, carefully taking the time to properly patch Will’s injuries. Will helped bandage him up first, and then Hannibal insisted on taking care of Will despite the younger man’s protests that Hannibal needed to rest. “Speak to me, Will,” Hannibal gently urges. He knows the knife did damage to the man’s mouth, but he is still able to speak, and right now Hannibal needs to know what is going on inside that mind of his.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is there to say?” Will asks almost blankly, speech only mildly distorted from his injuries. There’s a hint of something in his voice that Hannibal can’t decipher. Some emotion buried between irritation and resignation, maybe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hannibal pauses in his cleaning of the wound on Will’s shoulder to look him in the eyes. “How you are feeling, perhaps?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Will balks at the question, turning his head away so he doesn’t have to look at Hannibal, but still giving him access to take care of the slowly bleeding stab wound in his cheek. “How am I feeling? I’m feeling…” he trails off as if he’s somehow disconnected from how he feels.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which, in a way, he is. He doesn’t feel much of anything right now. Aside from a deep, primal satisfaction at killing The Dragon. The rest of it is all… hazed over by the fading adrenaline and slowly setting in pain. But he’s also teetering on the edge of something unfathomable. The only thing keeping him grounded right now is the feel of Hannibal’s hands as they wipe the blood from his body, and then the slightly rough texture of the gauze bandages Hannibal applies to his shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hannibal is patient. Keeps working slowly while Will takes time to process. They’ve just been through something akin to a religious experience. Both men baptized in the blood fo their enemy and reborn to become something new.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For Will, it’s the final step in shedding the artifice of a person he’s created over the years to present in place of his true self. It’s him giving in to his darkest desires, to his true nature, and realizing there is no going back to what he was. To being the </span>
  <em>
    <span>person</span>
  </em>
  <span> he was in a time before knowing Hannibal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For Hannibal, it’s fully surrendering to how he feels about Will. He thought he had already done so, the day he surrendered to the FBI instead of running when Will gave him the chance. But it seems, that wasn’t entirely correct. Before tonight, he still would have killed Will if given reason to. Had considered doing so even as they waited for the Great Red Dragon to arrive. Now… After what they’ve been through. Shared. What he has witnessed this night. There is absolutely no way he can bring himself to ever go through with such an act. He thinks if it came down it, he would leave Will rather than hurt him ever again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I feel… New...” he finally settles upon, glancing at Hannibal out of the corner of his eye before his gaze flicks back to the far wall. “Free... I imagine this is a little like how you must feel all of the time...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That brings a smile to Hannibal’s face that is rarely seen by others. Open and bright and unrestrained. It makes him look young in a way that reminds will of the picture he was shown in Italy from 20 years ago. “A little, yes. It is freeing to let one’s nature take over and act on instinct rather than following social expectations and rule of law.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think…” Will begins as he turns his head back to face Hannibal once more. The man had been in the middle of taping the last of the gauze to his cheek, and Will lets his cheek press into Hannibal’s palm in a surprisingly intimate gesture. “I want to feel it again…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The smile on Hannibal’s face becomes more of a wicked grin at those words.  He doesn’t need Will to elaborate. He knows exactly what he means. “Once we’ve hand a chance to recover,” he promises as he lets his hand slip from Will’s cheek down to cup the side of his neck. He leans in closer, so their faces are mere inches apart, eyes flitting down to his lips before meeting his gaze again, and adds “I know of a few… former friends that might be perfect for sating this newfound desire of yours.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This time it’s Will that grins, just before leaning in and bringing their lips together in a kiss that i full of desire and tastes of thick coppery blood. Both Will’s and the Dragon’s, where it still stains Hannibal’s lips. When they part a moment later, Hannibal reaches up and brushes his fingers over the bandage on Will’s cheek and silently thanks the Dragon for giving him this gift.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>You can follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/TrickyHannigram"> Twitter</a> for more fandom related fun!</p><p>Or you can also follow me on <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/enbystiles"> Twitch</a> for weekly writing and gaming streams.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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